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On April 1st, Jiangsu’s provincial government issued a draft plan to slash the number of chemical production enterprises and chemical parks over the next 3 years. The plan is to eliminate chemical enterprises with low safety standards and severe pollution issues. The plan comes just several days after a deadly blast which killed 78 people in Xiangshui County, Yancheng in Jiangsu Province on 21 Mar 2019.
The draft plan is now under internal discussion and hasn’t been published yet. Main points of the plan are listed below:
Shut down chemical enterprises to 2,000 by 2020 and to under 1,000 by 2022;
By 2020, expel 34 enterprises located outside of chemical parks and which are also located within one kilometer of the main river and tributaries of the Yangtze River;
Expel 30 of the 89 hazardous chemical manufacturers in populated urban areas that fail to meet the safety standards by 2019. Reassess all remaining enterprises that have been ordered to rectify and expel them by 2020;
Promote transformation and upgrading of 2,339 enterprises located outside chemical parks. Shut down or expel those with high risks, poor safety and environmental protection management level and low technology level by 2020;
Further investigate 1,660 enterprises (income below 20 million Yuan) to assess their safety and environmental risks. Shut down or expel those that fail to meet the standards by 2020;
Reduce the number of chemical plants in the province from 50 to 20 after a comprehensive evaluation of geographical location, industry level, land area, permission, safety supervision and environmental governance, etc.;
Prohibit new chemical construction projects in areas that have been stripped off the qualification of constructing industrial parks. The existing enterprises that are involved with inflammable and/or explosive substances and have substandard safety and environmental protection systems should be strictly managed and closed down or relocated gradually.
Jiangsu’s economy has benefited a lot from the local chemical industry. The chemical industry revenues surpassed 2 trillion Yuan in 2017, ranking the second in China. However, the large number of chemical enterprises (over 5,000) has also caused major safety and environmental problems. In recent years Jiangsu has called a halt to production activities in numerous parks. However, we still see poor infrastructure, unscientific management, and insufficient supervision in chemical parks.
The blast was the deadliest industrial accident in China since the Tianjin port explosion that killed 173 people in 2015. The Xiangshui Chemical Industrial Park where the blast occurred has been completely shut down. In the wake of this blast, several other provinces have conducted chemical industry safety inspection campaigns.
The ambitious plan will speed up the overhaul of the local chemical industry. However, local officials and citizens have voiced concern about the impact of chemical parks and chemical plant closures on the local economy.
